The Iron Curtain Is Being Drawn Over Nigeria

by Eze Eluchie,

As an agency of the Executive Arm of Governments, the Department of State Security (DSS) seals up the activities and secretariat of a Committee of the Legislative arm of Government, the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives, it is getting clearer to all concerned that dark clouds are descending over Nigeria’s experimentation with democratic governance - the stench of rascality and impunity is reaching to the high heavens

Next, the Buhari-led junta will seal up or forcefully close Office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the office of the President of the Senate of the Federal Republic, or the entire Supreme Court or perhaps the National Assembly, whenever it so desires.

Following from the totalitarian and dictatorial backgrounds of the character who presently occupies the Office of President rules over Nigeria as President, informed observers had warned that with its weakened institutional structures, Nigeria would gradually slide into totalitarian rule. The rapidity of this descent had been, however, only foreseen by the most discerning.

When added to the recurring penchant and outright refusal by the head of the ruling junta in Nigeria, Mr. Buhari, to obey Court Orders, it is clear that of the clouds are gathering and the aftermath would be bloody.

--the Iron Curtain is being drawn over Nigeria!

Picture: Nigeria's DSS operatives in action

Lessons From Turkey’s Failed Coup 2 - What Really Is A Democratically Elected Government?

by Eze Eluchie,

For too long, the ‘international community’ has mistaken the ritual of having a date set out when determinable segments of a country’s population troop out to ostensibly express a political opinion as to who rules over the country as indicative of the existence of Democracy – a system that must be coveted and protected from reactionary forces. The clamour to raise whatever is touted as a democracy to near-divine heights that must be protected and vilify whatsoever efforts a populations makes to remove the heavy yoke at times imposed on populations by pseudo-democracies has often times led to the imposition of dictatorships, civil unrests (and outright internal conflicts) in some jurisdictions.

The responses given to domestic governance issues and the failed coup in Turkey by external actors best illustrates a growing paradox relating to ‘Democracy’ and global reaction to pretenders to the lofty ideals of democracy.

Prior to the night of 15^th July 2016 when some elements of the Turkish military rolled out of their Barracks unto the streets of Turkey in the now failed coup attempt against their rulers increasingly dictatorial dispositions, there had been noticeable widespread discontent with the increasing signs of descent to fascism, heightening intolerance, clampdown on the Media and basic freedoms, and repeated terror attacks in Turkey from diverse fronts. There had been consistent efforts by the Tayyip Erdogan-led junta to gradually, but surely, erode whatsoever levels of civil and individual liberties enjoyed by the Turkish population and steadily impose a totalitarian dictatorship, whilst operating under the guise of democracy. The Media was gradually being shackled, the right to assembly and protest was met with brutal security operations and the political opposition was gradually being forcefully extinguished.

Then comes the coup bid - all and sundry, ‘the international community’, waited with bated breaths to know if it will succeed, with many, particularly in the corridors of power in Washington DC, Brussels, London and even Moscow, secretly hoping that the coupists succeeded and signal the exit of a much loathed character; and the moment the coup appeared to falter, all the usual noise on the need to uphold ‘democracy’ and condemn efforts to forcefully remove a ‘democratically’ (s)elected government rent the air – with greater ferocity from the usual sources. Momentarily, the descent Turkey had been making under its current ruling junta towards totalitarianism seemed to have been eclipsed by the desire to appear to be on the side of a ‘democracy’.

It sure did not take long for Turkey’s maximum ruler to take advantage of the belated condemnation of the coup bid and support for ‘democratically elected governments’ by the ‘international community’ to convert the situation to a new opportunity to continue, albeit with much vengeance and added gusto, a devastating purge and clampdown on the Turkish society – all in the name of protecting the ‘democracy’.

With hundreds of educational, cultural and social institutions closed down, over 10,000 security operatives detailed, several thousand more academicians, clerics, politicians and activists detained, and the Media worse hit with about 50 daily newspapers, 20 magazines, 25 Radio stations and 20 Television channels closed down, a blank cheque has been issued by the international community to extremist demagogues intent on muzzling Turkey and reverse the very ideals of a secular state initiated by the legendary founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Ataturk.      

It is now clear that with the gale of arrests and closures of private and state institutions, information on torture of detainees and other wanton acts of disrespect and abuse of fundamental rights, following the failed coup in Turkey, soon enough, the international community will wish that the coup plot in Turkey had indeed succeeded. Considering that the main beneficiary of the failed coup plot is now clearly Mr. Tayyip Erdogan, whose stranglehold on the Turkish state has been strengthened, questions are now being properly asked if indeed the ‘failed coup’ attempt had not been craftfully manipulated as the Turkish version of pre-WWII Germany’s 'Reichstag Fire' incident.  

There has to be a reappraisal of support for whatever portends to be a democracy. Conscious efforts has to be made to unveil the veil, look beyond the outer coats and into the content, and some form of criteria agreed on when a 'democracy' is no longer a 'democracy' and has to be uprooted. Many countries in Sub Sahara Africa have suffered greatly under rulership by pseudo-democracies who are foisted on populations by interests far removed from the domestic populations. When a ‘democracy’ is no longer democratic, it behoves on those bearing its yoke to do whatsoever to remove the shackles, lest it destroys all.

Picture: 1. Detained Turkish soldiers, and 2. Journalists being brutalized by pro-regime mob. 

A Nigerian Link To The Failed Coup In Turkey?

by Eze Eluchie,

From informed Turkish perspectives, funding for the failed coup plot was channeled by United States officials through Nigeria’s United Bank for Africa (UBA) to the coup plotters.

Considering that thousands of Nigerians fly through Turkey (via Turkish Airways), and the growing penchant by Turkish authorities to arrest and detain all and sundry with the remotest of links (if any) to the failed coup attempt, one is left to wonder if there was any national (Nigerian) interest in partaking in the failed coup plot or if merely it was personal interests by a despot willing to do whatsoever for the system that helped him into office.

Was the irrationality of a Nigerian-link to the failed coup founded on the perception that the segment of the Nigerian population most at risk, by virtue of their frequent business travels through Turkey, from a Nigerian involvement in the failed coup plot in Turkey belong to the ‘5% voter’ segment the Nigerian rulers has vowed not to treat equally as those who gave him ‘97% of votes’?

No doubt, on account of his extremist views, so many entities, interested in peace across the Middle East would have more than a passing interest in regime change in Turkey, but in real terms, of what precise benefits and concern would it be to Nigerians or the Nigerian contraption to effect regime change in Turkey, at great risk to segments of the Nigerian population?

In this era of a much trumpeted ‘war against corruption’ orchestrated by the ruling junta in Nigeria, how was it possible for such money laundering activities to pass through a Nigerian Bank? Unless of course the entire ‘war against corruption’ was, as many are now becoming aware, a vindictive ploy to besmear and do away with perceived and real political foes.

The times are interesting and perilous

Turkish Publication – Yeni Safak:

http://www.yenisafak.com/en/news/us-commander-campbell-the-man-behind-the-failed-coup-in-turkey-2499245

Picture:  Scene from the coup in Turkey and the logo of Nigeria’s United Bank for Africa.

Lessons From Turkey’s Failed Coup 1

by Eze Eluchie,

A common theme and image that comes out from the now failed attempt to depose of the Tayyip Erdogan-led government in Turkey, was the exceptional restraint shown by the coupists when confronted by unarmed civilians. The soldiers, well armed, some in fortified armoured tanks, occupying strategic positions that placed them, generally, at an advantageous position from counter-attacks from other soldiers who might want to oppose the coup, simply choose not to open fire on their unarmed civilian compatriots.

There is no doubt what would have transpired if the coupist-soldiers had been confronted by equally armed soldiers - there would have been a bloody shoot-out that would have further polarized the Turkish society and perhaps activated a hasty descent into civil war.

The narrative on the coup would, no doubt, have been quite different if the soldiers had upon meeting resistance by unarmed civilians decided to shoot. The civilian would have been massacred. The high fatalities recorded would have either spurred greater resistance (or more bloodshed) or served to cow resistance and thus ensure that the coup succeeded.

The refusal by the soldiers to stand their grounds against unarmed civilians stands the coupist-soldiers as persons who generally understand their role as defenders of the State/people and not robots who simply obey the orders of their superiors. There clearly is a filial connection between the People of Turkey and the Turkish Military.

Considering that virtually all the key institutions of the Turkish State had been taken over by the coupists or soldiers loyal to them within a few hours of the coup, it will be clearly illusory for the present Turkish rulership to ascribe the failure of the coup bid in any way to itself or its popularity.

What was the secret? Turkey is broadly speaking a nation, as opposed to being a multi-national contraption with every component of the contraption striving to outdo the other even at the detriment of the whole.

What would have been the outcome if a similar situation was to play out in a contraption, as we have across Sub Sahara Africa, where the co-inhabitants feel foisted upon each other and there is no sense of nationhood? The soldiers would have gleefully shot, crushed and vanquished all unarmed civilians in their range. Going by the way security operatives in most Sub Sahara African countries clearly look forward to using live bullets on the population they are supposed to protect and whose taxes found their existence, the nightmarish and bloody outcome of physically blocking tanks, confronting armed coup plotters and their agents, in such countries is not difficult to realize.

Until we have nation-states in Africa, any group of opportunistic soldiers who have access to requisite armoury with sufficient number of sadistic soldiers in their midst who would not mind mowing down a couple of thousand civilians on their path to power, can and will, under appropriate conditions, stage successful coup d’etats. To prevent coup d'etats from reoccurring across Sub Sahara African states, the countries in that region simply have to be restructured to meet the qualities of nation-states.

Erdogan’s treatment of the coupists who, rather than spill more Turkish blood on Turkish streets, voluntarily surrendered, will go a long way to determine the eventual outcome of the botched coup. The seeming survival of the Erdogan junta is merely a minuscule temporary outcome. 

Tomorrow yet comes.

Picture: Unarmed civilians confront armed soldiers in Turkey. 

Killing of Black Americans by US Police - The Murderous Orgies Approaches Its Crescendo.

by Eze Eluchie,

Clearly, the United States needs international help in addressing its growing racism problem which has the potential of assuming genocidal proportions. The main difference between what transpired in apartheid South Africa and what is going on now in the US, with regards to entrenched police murder and maltreatment of Black Americans, is that in the former, there was a clear cut message as to what, where and when Blacks were tolerated or not, as opposed to in the later where there is a fatally deceptive semblance of freedom and equality, and one could easily get killed for doing whatsoever, wheresoever and at any time for merely being Black.

Yet, you will have some supposed intellectuals trying to explain away this latest murder of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, and Phillando Castile in St. Paul, Minnesota, urging that those who have already been transformed to corpses should have prostrated on the floor on sighting persons who are supposed to be law enforcement offices and going to great lengths to stress out what truly remarkable and great sacrifices cops make to keep the society safe – keep such rationalization and bunkum for the trash-bins.

With the election of a half-white-half-black President in the United States (the greatest misnomer in modern political history has been the common reference to Barack Obama as a Black American President, he is clearly half-White, half-Black), the killings has sky-rocketed in a palpable show of hatred expressing the muted phrase that: “whilst you can have the White House, we still gonna kill you”. With rising ultra-nationalism bothering on extremist bigotry being raised to the pedestal of electioneering issues, there is bound to be increased violence against identifiable peoples by the system.

The systematic and routine killing of Black Americans by White law enforcement officials in the US are developing a pattern and is assuming the status of a crime against humanity as envisioned under the Rome Statute and a proper case for adjudication at the international arena.

As with the murderers of Travon Martins, Eric Garner and several others and the over 100 unarmed Black Americans killed by police men in the US in year 2015, the murderers of Alton Sterling, Phillando Castile and others to follow, will walk home, ‘free’ and ‘innocent’, and probably make a few millions auctioning the murder weapons, talking of how they committed murder or just writing a book on ‘how to murder and walk free’.

Video of shooting of Alton Sterling: https://usuncut.com/black-lives-matter/alton-sterling-new-video/

Video of aftermath of shooting of Phillando Castile:
https://www.facebook.com/reynolds.lavish/videos/107665803002211/

NB: After this piece was written, it was confirmed that 5 police officers in Dallas were murdered by snipers, apparently in retaliation against the too frequent murders of Black Americans by police officers - this is a most unfortunate descent down a path the United States can least afford to thread at this time, or any other time for that matter. The murders must simply stop, lest full anarchy erupts. 

Picture: The murderers in police uniform MUST be stopped!